Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

[arkangel33]

Hey all,
I'm on the lookout for some modern images of the blanket role straps for the double bag knapsack. I have owned an original knapsack. Have had customers who have owned original knapsacks. I have even worked In a museum that had 3 DB knapsacks and in all the knapsacks I have looked at, I don't ever remember seeing any that still had the blanket straps with it. Sounds kinda silly but do a Google search. Packs a plenty but no blanket role straps. So if anybody could help this feller out I would be grateful.

- - - Updated - - -

I stand corrected just found a couple. If anybody has any good images of one please PM me. Thanks

[ScottCross]

Re: Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

The Oshkosh Public Museum has one double bag knapsack that retains at least one blanket roll strap intact:

http://www.oshkoshmuseum.org/Virtual/exhibit3/e30199a.htm

[arkangel33]

Re: Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

Scott,
Thanks, that's the one that I found. I can just picture in my head all the crated knapsacks on Bannerman Island with no straps.

[Mississippian]

Re: Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

Useful things those little straps, no wonder they didn't survive.

Will MacDonald

[David Jarnagin]

Re: Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

Mike,

The answer on overcoat straps is there were less of them made then knapsacks. These numbers are not counting state purchases but there were only 2,104,283, overcoat straps whereas there were 3,583,324 knapsacks purchased at US Arsenals from May 1861 through October 21, 1865. Reason is they were not issued with the knapsack but were a separate item and were listed as such when issued.

Information on them can be found in the quartermaster’s manual that has just been published. As owner of two original pairs I can tell they are very hard to find and no dealer can remember a set for sale by themselves.

The straps are shorter than people think. They are ¾” wide by 25 1/2”. I have posted images of one of the pairs.

David Jarnagin
djarnagin@bellsouth.net

[arkangel33]

Re: Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

David,
Thanks that does explain a lot. I'm currently waiting on my sets of the manuals put out by Coates and Gaede. Cant wait to get them.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Fed Double Bag blanket role straps

I think the greatcoat and knapsack straps are different things. August Kautz, in Form 5 on p. 29 of the first edition of The Company Clerk (1863) lists "Knapsack-straps" and "Great-coat straps" as separately issued items of Camp and Garrison Equipage.

The numbers given above for "Straps for greatcoats" and "Knapsacks" appear on p. 285 of Series III, Vol. 5 of the ORs. Earlier, on p. 278, another table shows that nearly half the "Straps for greatcoats" (949,233) and more than a quarter of the Knapsacks (868,578) were on hand at the depots on June 30, 1865. This would increase the discrepancy between knapsacks issued with and without straps if that's what the "Straps for greatcoats" actually were.

But the price lists published annually during the war in General Orders also list "Great Coats straps, sets" as separate from "Knapsacks and straps." This reinforces the impression from Kautz that they're two different things.

Since Kautz also has the knapsacks and their straps accounted for separately from each other, it seems likely that the little things sometimes got lost or destroyed. Still, we have no numbers for what the actual difference was between knapsacks with and knapsacks without those straps, only that they were issued with them and soldiers were charged if they got lost.

It may all sound niggling and trivial but there's always been a bit of confusion about what those straps on top of the knapsack are and I wouldn't want to have people think that knapsacks were widely issued without them. For one thing, I find them pretty useful myself. :)